Posts Tagged ‘movies’

The Wide Angle

by Josh K. Lavender

So this is my first review column, and I regret to announce that I have been too overwhelmed in financial debacles to actually review any new releases. However, I believe where there’s a will…well, you know the rest. As I have been too stretched as of late to actually travel to the nearby cinema and watch anything of pressing media interest in which to critique, I shall simply make my first article one of concern. Concern, that is, of an alarming trend in Hollyweird which is the latest fad of creating and releasing movies in 3-D. Or should I say, re-releasing movies in 3-D.

Sure, Avatar (that box office devouring story of Thanksgiving in space), could be filmed and created for an all immersive 3-D experience, but what about the other movies being slated for a “jump off the screen” makeover? For example, writer/director James Cameron has decided that since Avatar was such a commercial success then maybe he could reap similar profits by bringing back a former success and giving it an eye popping leg up.

His pitch is to re-release his 1997 epic Titanic in 2012 in 3-D. Really? James, really? I find it somewhat appalling to exploit human deaths on a true life tragedy by making their various demises “leap off the screen” for the sake of cheap thrills. Though one could argue that the film itself was an exploitation of tragedy from the beginning. Look, I know Kate Winslet & Leonardo DiCaprio weren’t really victims of the 1914 disaster, but I’m talking about the idea of people perishing in the event. The event was real. The ship did sink. And personally, I don’t think that it’s appropriate to recreate the events with a strictly thrill ride approach. It’d be like showing Schindler’s List or ThePassion of the Christ in 3-D.

Suddenly, it wouldn’t be a joke. Look, reconstructing an awful historical event with a fictitious storyline to get your audience to connect with is one thing, but making a buck off it for the sake of making a buck is another thing
entirely. And on a final note, besides the disregard for respecting the dead, what are all the non-disaster scenes going to be like in 3-D? Here’s a bit of caviar coming your way–OOOOOOOH. I can almost bite it!…